The Adventures of M.Y. Lady Coppelia
Well I have been in Turkey for a year now and have enjoyed it more than any other country so far. The countryside is spectacular and the people are so nice and friendly and helpful. It has worked out well as each country I have visited I have enjoyed better than the last one so it has been a gradual increase in pleasure.
The trip across the Aegean was in the company of a boat I met in Aguadulce and had not seen for 2 years but met up again with in Kalamata. This was a yacht called Sandivina with Peter and Susie and their dog Bella.
The passage through the Cyclades and the Dodecanese islands was spectacular. The islands are wonderful particularly Delos where the ancient remains are pretty well still standing and you can walk through the old town buildings. In Paros we met up with some friends of Sandivina on a boat called Moon Rebel. David and Carole. We then cheated and all went to Thira (Santorini) by ferry and spent a wonderful 3 days there. Lots of Ozo, good food and watching the lovely and famous sunset from Oia on the northern tip of the island. Also a walk round the ancient city of Akrotiri which was buried in dust when the island exploded and is now being dug out.
Generally the weather was very good but even with only winds of 3 or 4 in the open sea these can get up to 7 and 8 between the islands due to the funnelling effect. This can get quite interesting but only lasts a short time until you get clear of the island.
It is said, and with a lot of truth, that sailing boats do not use there sails much in the Mediterranean because the wind is either in the wrong direction, to strong or not enough. This was proved with Sandivina only sailing for a very short time during the whole trip. The other saying, from a Greek friend is;
if the wind is in the north, it is not safe to venture forth;
if the wind is in the south do not to leave the harbour mouth;
if the wind is in the east it is not safe for man nor beast;
if it is in the west, to stay in the bar is the best.
The last few days in Greece were spent in Rhodes which is a lovely old town. Very touristy though. Found some lovely eating houses and had some good meals. Hired a car and did the island.
TURKEY.
I entered Turkey at Marmaris. It is unfortunate that it is necessary to have to get a transit log and this necessitated visiting 4 different and widely spaced departments and the police to get a visa. The transit log lasts a year but the visa only lasts 3 months so every three months you have to go out of the country. The visa only costs 15 but the ferry costs 35 and it is a wasted day apart from shopping which is not easy on Rhodes as the only decent supermarket is about 3 miles out of town.
We worked our way east from Marmaris down to Kekova Roads via Ekinçik, Göçek and its associated bays, Fethiye, Kalkan, Kaş, Kekova Roads, which is a wonderful peaceful inland stretch of water,
and as far as Finike.
On our way back west it was time for a new visa so as Kastellorizon, a Greek island, is only 3 miles from Kaş we thought we would take the boats over. This required booking out of turkey first which we did. The wind had got up a bit but as it was only 3 1/2 miles it did seem a problem. Peter went off first then I followed. I realised that I had not shut the saloon windows so put the autopilot on and dashed down to shut the them. When I came onto the bridge again I was heading straight into the side of a gullet. The autopilot had gone wrong! I managed to slow a bit before I hit him but damaged him down to the water line. Luckily he did not sink so we both returned to Kaş harbour. The police breathalysed me, they inspected the boat for safety equipment, and the harbour master had written a document claiming damages for everything under the sun which amounted to 17,000. He wanted me to sign it and said that I could not leave the harbour until I did. The insurance company said they wanted a surveyor to visit but he was not immediately available. When I said that time was not a problem for me and we would wait for the surveyor it took the wind out of their sails. Lady Coppelia only received a few scratches to her paintwork, a tough old lady. The next morning I met with the owner and over a cup of coffee we settled on 6,600 which the insurance company agreed I could settle there and then. When I called back into Kaş this year he had a much better boat than before I hit him so he was very happy. I also had made a lot of friends who it was lovely to meet again.
Since then I have fitted a new autopilot. The old Pinta had done very well up to now and was well past retirement age.
A ½ litre of beer, a starter and a main course was the exorbitant sum of 7,000,000 Turkish lire £3 or 4.8. We are all millionaires here. When you go to the cash m/c to get money you have to decide how many hundreds of millions to get out.
The low cost of everything is almost embarrassing especially when they keep giving you little extras and tea etc. at no extra charge. All the restaurants have a jetty and when they see a boat coming each restaurant stands at the end of its jetty waving the appropriate country flag and trying to attract the boat to their jetty. On Saturday & Sunday morning a boat comes out and distributes free loaves of bread to all the boats.
Fuel was 47p a litre last year but is now 58p and the water is very good to drink, plentiful and cheap as is the local wine.
The Turkish people are totally different to the Greeks. The Greeks do everything at the top of their voices whereas the Turks say very little and quietly and it all seems to work. They are such happy people and nothing is to much trouble. A friend of mine wanted a car type fuse but could not find one. The owner of one shop he went into did not have one so he gave him the spare from his own car.
The gulets, the large local boats up to 20 odd meters long and very wide, captains are amazing how they manoeuvre the very large boats and with only one engine in the smallest of harbours. Kaş was incredible as the boats were packed so tight that the fenders were squashed flat and still a gulet found room to moor. All the mooring is stern to. This means you drop your anchor 30 or 40 meters in front of your chosen spot and then reverse into the mooring. Generally there is surprisingly very little problems but you can imagine the tangle of anchors that sometime ensues in a narrow harbour when your anchor is among the boats on the other side of the harbour and their anchors are among the boats on your side. Everybody has found solutions to the problem and everyone helps each other. Great fun.
The country side is quite dramatic. Not a lot of coastal habitation but very high sheer cliffs. Where I am at present is on the Lycian coast and they were noted for burying there dead in enormous sarcophagi. They are solid rock and about 3 meters long and 1.5 meters wide and 3 meters high and the coast is littered with them. Often they would carve the pillars etc. of a small temple into the solid sheer face of a cliff.
Because of the problems I have had with the 4 Kw Onan generator, Onan have fitted a new 7 Kw one for free. There was great difficulty to get the Turks to accept a no cost invoice. At one stage I had the local customs director and assistant sitting on the quayside while the engineers removed the old generator. Onan did not want it back but because the serial number was in my transit log I had to account for it. So it is somewhere in customs bond in Goçek. Thankfully I had fitted solar panels the last time it went wrong so I did not have power problems.
I booked into Netsel Marina at Marmaris for the winter. Here I redid the starboard side of the galley to fit the washing machine in permanently, install a new built in fridge to cater for the high temperatures we get here and create shelves etc for books and files and a computer work station. The boat is drying out so it looks like a repaint job next year. The re-caulked deck is doing well.
It rained a lot and very heavily but with my waterproofing I only had one leak.
The only problem I had apart from the generator was the couplings between the engine and the prop shafts. I had to replace these. That was fun bringing 25 kilos of metal back from England on the plane. The front starboard forward corner post of the saloon rotted totally away. Repairing this with a complete new iroko timber corner post and a new aft cabin hatch was only 420 (£275) a lot cheaper than England! This is certainly the place to get woodwork done.
There are very few tourists about at the moment and very few charter yachts. The locals seem to take it philosophically though and dont seem to get to worked up. The war has obviously had its effect but it has not affected their attitude to the cruising population.
Love and regards to everyone.
Tony
Tel. +90 5434 855466